Business Planning and Management Succession
Our firm commonly advises clients with closely held businesses. You may plan to sell your business, pass it down to the next generation, or merely want to preserve options for the future. Whatever your wishes, we can provide solutions for equity and management succession, which will guide you in growing your business in a tax-effective manner.
We have experience working with business managers, key employees, entrepreneurs, and early investors in structuring equity and succession plans, and incorporating various buy-sell agreements and deferred compensation arrangements in ways that will benefit you and your family, now and in the future.
Business planning commonly involves the following areas:
- Developing and restructuring legal entities to achieve your desired results
- Analyzing alternatives for key employees including employment agreements, buy-sell agreements, non-qualified deferred compensation agreements, and various insured and non-insured fringe benefits
- Reviewing liability exposures to the family business, and minimizing the associated risk through the use of limited liability entities, and with the assistance of insurance professionals, appropriate insurance coverage
- Developing plans to shift business equity within the family or to non-family key employees, with an eye toward management succession
- Representing clients in mergers and acquisitions, including the purchase of other business enterprises
- Working with appraisers to advise clients on business valuation
- Providing advice on structuring and negotiating transfers and tax impacts of a sale or merger
- In collaboration with insurance professionals, reviewing business entity life insurance programs, including key person life insurance, split-dollar insurance, and buy-sell agreement funding insurance
- Crafting tenants-in-common agreements for owners of fractional interests in real property